Violence Hits Pakistan's Lollywood

The raging wave of suicide bombings and attacks, some in reprisal for the military operations against local Taliban, are casting their shadow over cultural, film and showbiz activities in the country.Lahore, the cultural capital and the center of Pakistan’s film industry, which is locally known as Lollywood, is the hardest hit.Producers and actors are shattered. They have lost their confidence," Khalid Farshori, a senior cultural reporter, told IslamOnline.net.Many of them have personally told me that they are thinking of joining other professions to earn their livelihood.

He believes that the situation is worst in Lahore as only a very few films are being produced nowadays.Theater has totally collapsed due to repeated bomb attacks on the theater and drama centers during the past few months."Farshori cited bomb attacks by suspected Taliban at Al-Hamra art and cultural center, the country’s largest performing arts institution in the midst of Lahore.Not only actors and producers, but audiences are also scared, and are not thronging the cinemas and theaters compounding the hardships of producers and actors who have been reeling from financial crunch."Even the government's recent decision to lift a long-running ban on screening Indian films in local cinemas failed to attract the audiences.The film industry in Lahore, known as Lollywood, a portmanteau of the city's initial with Hollywood, started in 1929.After the partition, Lahore was the only film production centre in the newly-found Pakistan.Since then, film production centers have been opened in the cities of Karachi and Peshawar.

By Muhammad Hamza Zahid